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Season Records: (W-L)

34-22

(Home: 18-8)

20-37

(Away: 9-19)

Upcoming Games:

Apr 11

Apr 13

Apr 14

Apr 16

Apr 17

at

vs

at

vs

at

7:00 pm

7:00 pm

8:30 pm

7:00 pm

7:00 pm

Projected Starting Lineup:

C

PF

SF

SG

PG

HIBBERT

WEST

GRANGER

GEORGE

HILL

Projected Starting Lineup:

C

PF

SF

SG

PG

GRAY

JOHNSON

ANDERSON

DeROZAN

CALDERON

PacersKyrylo Fesenko, getting into wacky hijinks in Point Place, WI, out

the Indiana Pacers turned in a very strong performance to beat one of thebest teams — if not the best team — in the league: the Oklahoma CityThunder. While dominant for two and a half quarters, the Pacers had towithstand a sublime performance by Kevin Durant and a furious comebackby the Thunder.

Withstand it they did, and it was largely thanks to yet another great fourth-quarter performance by Danny Granger. “The Captain” — as he is called inpre-game introductions — delivered 13 points and grabbed 3 offensiverebounds in the final 12 minutes as Indy gutted out their 34th win of theseason to open their lead for the third seed to a game-and-a-half.

Danny Granger delivering in the fourth is becoming a common occurrencethese days. Overall, Granger is playing some of the best ball of his career.Consider these factoids obtained using stats provided by the NBA:

Over the last five games, Granger is averaging 24.6 points pergame on almost 54% shooting. If you look at the advancedstatistics of effective field goal percentage (eFG%) and trueshooting percentage (TS%), which take into account threepointers and overall scoring efficiency, his numbers areastronomical. His eFG% is .619, and his TS% is .656.

Paring it down to just the fourth quarter is even more impressive.In his four fourth-quarter performances alone (he sat the entire4th in the Washington blowout), he has averaged 11.5 points(translates to over 41 points on a per-36 minute basis) whileshooting almost 70% in normal FG%. He has hit 7 of his 8 three-point attempts, and his eFG% is a positively jaw-dropping .848.

The question early in the season was, "What’s wrong with Danny Granger?"After a win in January where Danny played well, but drew a lot of frontiron, I asked him he thought his legs weren’t as strong as he wanted orneeded them to be. His basic response was that no, they weren’t, but in acompressed season, there was little to be done about it other than fightthrough it.

Before last night’s game, I caught up to Danny and asked him if his bodyfelt better, or if he’d just adapted to the wear-and-tear. He opted toanswer more about...CONTINUE READING AT 8p9s

Raptors Republic

If you’re more “sports fan” than “basketball fan” in Toronto, you’re probablynot reading this. The Leafs are eliminated (mercifully, finally), yes, but theboys of summer have started back up and have their home opener tonight.The Rogers Centre will be packed with 50,000 to see Henderson Alvarezshut down the Massholes.

If you’re strictly a “Raptor fan,” or card-carrying member of Tank Nation™,then your eyes will be on the Raptors in Basketball Country, Indiana. Ofcourse, while the Pacers jockey for playoff seeding, currently sitting 3rd inthe East by the narrowest of margins, the Raptors are jockeying for pingpong balls. A streak of 4 wins in 5 games had dropped the Raptors all theway to 7th in lottery odds, but a pair of losses over the weekend has themright back in the mix at 6th but just a game from returning to 4th. That 3-spot slide is a 7.6% slide in chances of getting uber-prospect Anthony Davisas the new “face” of the franchise. Should we lose for mere percentagepoints, and forego the "intangible" value of winning now?

Rest assured, as much as the fanbases may want to forego it, this game willactually be played on the hardwood. The Pacers have won the previousmeetings by scores of 90-85 and 95-90, so betting on a 5-point loss seemsprudent. Hollinger sees it as a 9-point game, which could be exaggerated bythe rested nature of Indiana, the Raptors on a travel back-to-back, andAndrea Bargnani’s status being doubtful, as his calf tightened up again inyesterday’s game against the Thunder. Bargs’ status is yet to be confirmedby the team, but it seems incredibly risky to play him just a day after re-aggravating an injury that has put him on the shelf twice this year.

The tale of the tape is below. You can expect an iso-heavy attack from thePacers that will see them spend a lot of time at the line. If Bargs’ can’t go,the team is simply too undermanned to keep up. Ed Davis and AmirJohnson will likely be in foul trouble against Roy Hibbert and David West,while Danny Granger and Paul George shouldn’t face too much oppositionon the wings. DeMar DeRozan had a horribly inefficient game against theThunder, and with George having become a premiere wing defender in justhis sophomore season...CONTINUE READING AT RAPTORS REPUBLIC

Re: 4/9/2012 Game Thread #57: Pacers Vs. Raptors

Re: 4/9/2012 Game Thread #57: Pacers Vs. Raptors

I don't understand why people keep saying that Hill hasn't done a good job as the PG in the second unit wasn't Hill the point guard that brought the Pacers back against NY? he is not a pure PG by any mean but he is better than DC for sure, I get that many here are only looking at his offensive numbers reason why the same people get happy when DC scores 18 points but again lets not forget that the court has two sides.

I was in town for those past 3 games and nearly every seat was filled. Friday was announced a sellout.

I know it was against hot teams and some bandwagon fans here and there, but for the most part they were strong Pacers home crowds which is definitely bright spot in gradually seeing attendance improvement.